The notorious online forum 4chan was reportedly hacked on Tuesday, with leaked data suggesting the attacker had been inside the site’s system for over a year.
At the time of the breach, the site was intermittently inaccessible, and screenshots of 4chan’s alleged back-end system, source code, and moderation tools circulated widely on social media and rival forums.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the hacker also exposed a list of 4chan moderators and “janitors”, users with limited moderation privileges. These users could delete posts but not access IP addresses, unlike full moderators. One 4chan janitor confirmed the authenticity of the leak, stating, “I have no reason to believe otherwise,” and described the breach as “an issue of greater magnitude.”
Critically, the hack may have compromised the personal information of 4chan Pass subscribers, users who pay for VIP access and bypass certain posting limits. If confirmed, this breach could expose individuals tied to extremist content, given 4chan’s role in spreading alt-right ideologies and memes that have crossed into mainstream internet culture.
4chan has not yet publicly commented on the incident.
4chan Hacked: Moderators, Source Code, and User Data Reportedly Leaked
